Admittedly it was not the most eloquent thing to have posted, but never did I think it would spark something like this:

Friend:

Hey what’s wrong with us Cattle Ticks Liz … do you know & realise that when all religions are pulled apart, analysed & historically positioned the only 1 true church is the Catholic Church, hence the highest authority in the Pope exists - a direct & uninterupted lineage right back to Jesus’s crucifiction & his annointed & chosen first pope in Peter who was one of his 12 disciples, no other religion can have its origins based from the time of the resurection of Jesus, only the Catholic Church was annointed by god Liz, all other religions are offshoots of disgruntled christians, ie. Luther, Calvin, King Henry VIII, Church of Scientology from the freak Hubbard, the Mormons which are funded by the originators of Tupperware, & on we could go, then the Eastern Religions do not recognise Jesus as god but as a prophet so they have no actual god just a misinterpretation of the original old testament … so I can only comment that if the Catholic Church sucks all other offshoots are farcical

… the previous comment was truncated by the maximum allowable length of comments & was just a light hearted, innocent & non-provocative attempt by me to engage you a little more on your comment … I realise the Catholic Church also has many regrettable historical chapters in its history, but they were from the blunders and hypocrisy that mankind brought to the table in running the church with maligned indignations that weren’t in true faith, the essence of christianity & its faith especially as the true believers & followers of the Catholic Church will attest to is in following the ten commandments as god intended them to be carried out, … so dear Liz … I hear you & accept your viewpoint of course but I would love to know why you have singled out the Catholic Church when all other religions have no glorious past either & are departures and conspired deviations from the original scriptures that they have transfigured & none can ever be the true original religion…

1azylizzie:

I don’t agree with any religion, as I do not believe in any gods, so I think that the Catholic religion is no better than any other ;) Therefore I also believe that no religion can be considered ‘true’

I just think it is disgraceful that this priest who is actually doing something worthwhile is getting into trouble for something so petty as handing out condoms to prevent rape and not discriminating against same sex couples.

I think what this priest is doing is wonderful and I think it is disgraceful how the Catholic Church is treating him.

Oh i don’t single out the catholic church, there are many many religions that I also pick at, don’t worry :)

I strongly oppose Islam and the Mormon Church as well as The Church of Scientology (Especially Scientology!).

I just think that when a certain religion is completely defying all logic/reason and not recognising when people are doing something right because of an outdated ideology, that it should be brought to everyone’s attention :)

Friend:

Yes 2 of my 3 sisters were married by Father Peter Kennedy & have been in his ‘flock’ for most of his 20 years he has been the Parish Priest at South Brisbane, so I know they like many Catholics who have been church goers to his style of worshipping & carrying out of the scriptures are very upset at the heavy handed assault by the Archbishop & supposedly decreed by the Pope … I see where the dilemna is for the hierarchy in not taking some action as his practices are renegade in the view of the church, however I am with you & the many catholics who believe the church has to move and preach to the changes in culture that time and society expects & evolves into, it has to be not so backward thinking & locked in the dark ages when it comes to the issues that Father Peter Kennedy has tried to address & ordain as necessary & I agree with his stance & so too must the Catholic church and over time it will, but presently the issues are contentious & needs much divine inspiration to get there

1azylizzie:

Yeah I’m not arguing that every catholic is of this opinion (that would just be plain stupid and wrong) but I just think that the reaction to this priest by the ‘leaders’ of the church was totally wrong in every way, and unacceptable. It puts the Catholic church in a very very bad light

Unfortunately while many people of faith are nice and do no harm, the religion itself, (This applies to all religions not just Catholicism) can create an environment from where such intolerance can rise.

This is why I reject the idea of a god or (theism) as there is not a shred of evidence supporting the idea,(hence the why it is defined as ‘faith’) and the belief in certain holy scripture causes more harm than good in most cases. I am not going to believe anything unless it is supported by solid evidence.

That said, I am not having a go at you, because we both know that you yourself are a good upstanding member of society :)

Unfortunately I was a little more apologetic than I usually would be, as this family friend is very close with my parents, and I did not want to start some ridiculous family feud, but when my husband read it he said that I pretty much shut him up and that his comments = FAIL

Also if he had cared to read the actual article properly, he would have noticed that it was about a Brazilian priest, and not an Australian priest who got into trouble with the church for similar practices, but I let him slide on this one ;)

haha, the good news is he realised that what he had written was a little stupid, and afterwards wrote some apologetic stuff and said that he was just interested in hearing my viewpoints ;)

I have also had similar reaction to my facebook status when I posted a video from PETA. (I'm vegan). A 'friend' wrote a gigantic comment on my status trying to justify the reasons why she ate meat haha. It was a lot of nonsense, and luckily I didn't have to reply, because my Husband jumped in first and shut her up haha :P